This invention relates to a multiple-channel vibrating table for feeding loose parts in general.
Vibrating tables for feeding loose parts of any kind or sort are known and are substantially constituted by a plurality of troughs arranged side by side which are subjected, by means of various kinds of systems, to a vibration which has a longitudinal component so as to cause the progressive advancement of the parts along the troughs.
The shape of the troughs and their number vary in each instance according to the type of the parts to be fed and according to the requirements of production.
Generally, multiple-channel vibrating tables are used when it is necessary to feed the parts to a machine in a counted, aligned, orientated, sorted or otherwise controlled 5 manner. In practice, vibrating tables provide a controlled feeding of a machine or of a production line according to the requirements of production.
However, the currently commercially available types of multiple-channel vibrating table are unable to fully meet the requirements of machines or lines which require high precision in part feeding. In fact, with known multiple-channel vibrating tables excesses or non-uniformities in the supply of the parts to the final part of the vibrating table can occur, and these excesses or non-uniformities are very often passed on to the line which is fed by the vibrating table, since known vibrating tables, although they even out the position and sequence of advancement of the parts, are unable to eliminate excess parts in a manner which complies with the necessary production rates.
Indeed, when it is necessary to have a feeding system which can eliminate excess parts, other types of feeder or part movement devices are used which have a circular or spiral shape and recover the excess parts which are not fed to the machine or line arranged downstream by recycling them into the inner part of the feeder.
These types of feeder or movement devices, however, are more bulky and complicated than multiple-channel vibrating tables, and very often they cannot be adapted easily to the production line to be fed.